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In the midst of celebrating the first legal recreational marijuana sales in the US in nearly 100 years, there seems to be an awful lot of bitching about the price of legal weed. For every celebratory post on my Facebook news feed, there are at least two critical posts: photos of receipts from adult use shops with nasty comments about pricing, posts about black market pot being cheaper, posts glorifying states where people don’t go to jail for possession of small amounts. And posts about the “greed” of Colorado retail operators.

Let’s get something straight: what’s happening in Colorado is HUGE. Colorado is the only place in the entire world where recreational use is actually legal, and this is without question the biggest thing to happen for marijuana in any of our lifetimes. It’s certainly worthy of major celebration.

Yes, it’s decriminalized in other places, and medical qualification is pretty liberal in some areas, but that’s not the same thing as legalization, not by a long shot. The critical thing to remember is this: PEOPLE ARE STILL GOING TO JAIL FOR CANNABIS ALL OVER THE COUNTRY AND ALL OVER THE WORLD, and any advocate or activist who doesn’t recognize the significance of Colorado’s legal status and instead wants to bitch about prices is, for lack of better terms, an asshole.

Let’s think for a moment about the people who have opened the first pot shops in Colorado. Application for the first round of adult use retail licenses is limited to operators of licensed Colorado medical marijuana dispensaries. The folks who operate these dispensaries have served the state’s medical patients, lobbied for new laws, and put their freedom on the line in the face of federal law for years…they aren’t johnny-come-lately opportunists simply looking to make a quick buck.

And as they open the nation’s first retail stores, these business owners are our “guinea pigs” in terms of gauging how the feds will react to state legalization. These first adult use retail operators in Colorado are assuming a huge risk for their businesses, their finances, and their very freedom, and they aren’t doing it behind closed doors, they’re doing it in front of news media from around the world.

Opening a pot shop in Colorado isn’t cheap. License fees for retail operations are not cheap: after an initial $500 application, owners must pay $250 for each “key employee,” $75 for each member of support staff, $250 for vendor registration, and between $3,750 and $14,000 for a business license, depending on the existing medical marijuana license held by the owner, which costs between $7,500 and $18,000 depending on the number of patients served. An optional cultivation fee adds another $2,500.

Due to concerns about federal asset forfeiture that include real estate, it is notoriously difficult to rent property for marijuana businesses, and property owners generally charge a steep rate that reflects the legal and financial risk of renting to a marijuana business. Marijuana retail business owners are also likely to spend large amounts of money on legal counsel through the planning stages of their business, and will also have paid to retain a lawyer as they begin operation.

And it’s not exactly easy to get business loans for marijuana operations – the ability to use banks at all is currently questionable, so operating on a cash basis is necessary.

But despite the initial costs, yes, the owners of these shops will probably make money, and lots of it. One proprietor told a local news source his shop’s first day of operation was likely to generate $30,ooo in revenue. At that rate, shop owners should do quite well.

And shouldn’t they, after all? Advocates for legalization have been shouting for years that taxing and regulation will be good for our communities. We can’t be so short-sighted as to think that marijuana won’t be regulated to some degree in our country. All of our complaints about the black market would still hold true in an unregulated system: “Dealers don’t ID so kids can get it on the black market,” “you don’t know what you’re getting on the street,” “it will bring money to our communities,” and etcetera ad nauseam…Isn’t this what advocates have been saying all this time in order to get pot legalized?

Decriminalization just doesn’t go far enough. Sure, it’s great that recreational smokers don’t go to jail for an ounce of weed. But their pot doesn’t just magically appear. Where’s the protection for the growers? Where’s the protection for your buddy who sells you the weed, the guy who’s likely to have more than an ounce at any given time? Is it ok to have a system that puts folks like them in prison so you can have your bargain priced quarter today?

Because the prices won’t always be this high in Colorado. After the news reporters leave, after the first pot tourists go home, and after the initial buzz dies away, supply and demand will dictate market prices, just like it does in any other industry. That’s capitalism for you. And to me, it sounds pretty sweet.

Yes, the 27.9% state tax on retail sales is steep, and cities can add additional tax. However, Colorado voters overwhelmingly approved this tax, which will fund education as well as regulation of the new industry. While it adds cost to customers, the tax also makes an effective (and valuable) statement that recreational marijuana is here to stay, and will be a boon to the state, which only adds to public support and perception of recreational marijuana’s potential as a viable and legitimate industry.

Considering all this, it’s no surprise that prices are higher than what one might find on the black market – or the medical market – in other states. It’s also important to note that Amendment 64 also allows adult residents of Colorado to cultivate 6 plants at home, so people who cannot afford retail prices do in fact have another option for legal use.

So before you start spouting off on Facebook about how much better a deal you can get on your home state’s black market, think for a minute about the cost of getting arrested. Think about the cost of having your home raided, your children taken away, your freedom gone. Even if you feel the security of decriminalization, think about the other folks who don’t.

The initial cost of retail marijuana in Colorado may be steep, but freedom is priceless.

Vanessa Waltz

Vanessa Waltz is a writer, artist, and marijuana reform advocate living in New Mexico. She graduated from Wellesley College in 1994 with a dual BA in Sociology and Studio Arts. Vanessa is a firm believer in the healing properties of cannabis, and has a special interest in advocacy for children with epilepsy and cancer. She is the managing editor of Ladybud Magazine and serves on the board of the Coalition for Medical Marijuana – New Jersey (CMMNJ).

>The initial cost of retail marijuana in Colorado may be steep, but freedom is priceless.”

Yes, relief from prosecution and all that that entails, granted… but individual freedom, in any respect, that does not impinge on anyone else ought not be at all repressed or made illegal and I’m a person who feels that those rights should not have been taken away from us in the first place, so in this respect, our campaign is about regaining those lost rights through legislation. Freedom is not something that they give us – it is something we take back, by campaigning. To heck with the crumbs that fall from the masters’ tables, paying $70 for an eighth is daylight robbery on any planet. Gov agenda does not include freedom – their agenda is about corporotization, prison industries and suchlike. When the novelty of new sales wears off, I think we’ll be seeing these expensive sales tale off and people will start to learn to grow their own in Colorado. That will cost a whole lot less than $500+ an ounce, for sure.

Tom Donohue

Yes, clearly everyone is completely justified in freaking out about high prices on the very first day legal weed goes on sale, because as we all know, supply and demand have absolutely nothing to do with market prices of any product, which means those crazy high prices will be set in stone forever and ever for all eternity and there’s no way they’ll ever change, because nobody else will ever come around and decide that they can run a viable business by providing the same (or better) product for lower prices. Nope, that won’t happen, never ever…

By that logic, we should start a War On Petroleum so that we can drive our cars more affordably by going to shady characters with 50-gallon drums in back alleys instead of gas stations with inspected pumps and fire suppression systems. Or we should start a War On Cows, so that we’ll no longer be burdened by paying those exorbitant prices for gallons of pasteurized milk at the store, and we can clandestinely raise cows in our basements with ion filters to prevent our neighbors from being tipped off by the odor.

Damn, people need to wake up and smell the ganja. Seriously.

Evan Farley

All I heard was cheerleading for new taxes. Like somehow because it’s legal now changes much of anything at all to the regular user. You smoked then, you smoke now. Now you are taxed for it. Congrats.

Karen Woodward

the prices are set…you either pay the asking price or not…its your choice.nobody is bending your arm.i think gasoline is high…along with 1 gallon of milk and rent,utilities,etc.minimum wage should be higher.blah blah blah.

Pols are falling over themselves with proposals to legalize their own state. Look at all that revenue.

Maryland is about to drop like a big fat plum. Yum Yum Yum.

John Thompson

So your telling me that the store owners put up say, $30,000 to open there shop, turn around and make that MONEY back in “one day”. How the fuck is that fair to the CONSUMER? Just because these people did what they did to get to where they are, does not give them the right to RIP off the SMOKER! Just because they are the only one’s that are so called LEGAL, does not mean that they can become millionaires off of the smoker! You see even if its Legal, but EXPENSIVE, that still puts WALL’s up for the average American! HOW is this FAIR??

FreeTexanDude

First of all, the concept of ‘fair’ as you present it is a useful tool when teaching children, but does not really apply to business. These prices and this demand are like an xBox on the first day. They are blown out of proportion because of the newness of it all. It will taper down a lot in a few weeks and once they settle and a bit of competition happens those prices will come down. As supply increases and demand drops so will the price, but the price will always be set where the profit margin is positive.

Secondly, the figure of $30k refers to gross revenue for the first day. A third of that goes to a high sales tax. Another portion goes to whatever they paid the supplier for the product. They pay a very high rent based on the risk to the landowner. Then, as in any normal business, there are utilities, other taxes, employees to pay, yadda yadda. I suspect that this new revenue source will have a bazillion little agencies with their hands out. After all that a percentage or that $30k is left. This is from the busiest day they will ever have. What is left over is the profit margin. I guarantee this margin is lower than (no risk) bottled water.

Finally, these folks are taking serious risks. They need to build up a big bank against the next weirdo Fed that wants to hassle them or the next license fee that gets invented.

In any kind of business, gross revenue has little to do with what’s left in the owners hand when all is said and done.

Perhaps you should open a shop yourself.

Stuart Yates

I’d like to add one point, which is that the system is so complicated that none of the stores currently open are able to sell the majority of their stock, since their supply chain isn’t fully compliant yet. Each plant has to be tracked from seed to harvest using radio tags, weighed after trimming and then after drying, and portioned into eighths, quarters, and zips that must be reconciled against a database of sales every day to satisfy the Feds that no significant quantity is being siphoned into the black market. Buy a bag in CO and you’ll see the ID number of the plant it came from. It’s a miracle that dispensary owners pulled this off at all.

So when I went to see for myself the other day, I heard a lot of griping about prices and selection, but that’s all uninformed white noise. My reaction was awe, mixed with pride. I’m proud of all the people in CO who wrote these regulations, and all the business owners who looked at those hundred-odd pages and thought, “Yeah, we could do that.” And I know that in a few months’ time, there will be more shops opening, and more supply available to those that are open, so simple laws of economics will drive down prices, at the same time that those long lines disappear and consumer choice increases. For now, focusing on what some places are charging ($85 an eighth? You must be joking!) is just a distraction while there is a legit regulatory miracle taking place.

Colorado Brian

voters were forced to approve amendment64 because if they didn’t the state legislature was going to repeal the voters approval for recreational marijuana . Grow your own 12-18 inch tall plant and get an ounce of weed in less than 60 days. Using only a 42 watt CFL light, maybe in your closet. http://www.mypotseed.info